SM Land to shell out P54B for 2nd reclamation project

MANILA, Philippines–The SM group of tycoon Henry Sy is prepared to shell out at least P54.5 billion to reclaim and develop 300 hectares of land along Manila Bay for the city of Parañaque.

This mirrors a separate project of a similar scale awarded by the neighboring City of Pasay to SM Land Inc., which is now under review by the state-run Philippine Reclamation Authority.

“It’s in the favor of both PRA and LGUs (local government units) of Pasay and Parañaque to develop these in a contiguous property because [consolidated] master-planning is better,” SM Investments Corp. investor relations chief Cora Guidote said in an interview Wednesday.

Guidote said the unsolicited proposal submitted by subsidiary SM Land to reclaim the 300 hectares of land would cost the same as the proposed reclamation project in Pasay City, which was estimated at P54.5 billion.

But the net cost of reclaiming the land for SM after excluding the common area required under the law and the portion that would go to the PRA would be around P36,000 per square meter based on this original proposal, Guidote said.

The combined Pasay and Parañaque reclamation projects are thus estimated to cost P109 billion.

SM Land’s proposal to reclaim 300 hectares of land within the jurisdiction of Parañaque had recently been approved by the city’s public-private partnership (PPP) selection committee and duly endorsed by the city mayor.

Using a pass or fail criteria, the PPP committee said in a paid advertisement that only SM Land had satisfactorily submitted a feasibility study containing all the required components under a city ordinance.